CURRENCY printer De La Rue faces a hit of at least £35million to first-half profit and a possible fraud investigation after some staff allegedly falsified banknote quality certificates.

De La Rue, which makes more than 150 national currencies, is facing stock write-offs and other costs after discovering the irregularities in July.

The group said an internal investigation at its banknote plant in southern England had found that some staff had deliberately falsified certain paper specification test certificates for a few customers, meaning a small number of them failed to meet the required standards.

The company, which stopped shipping the affected banknote paper after finding the problems, said production now met specification. It said the behaviour of some of its staff was unacceptable and it had reported the matter to the authorities and taken disciplinary action.

The company declined to say if it had dismissed any employees but said the currency division’s managing director had quit. The Serious Fraud Office said De La Rue had contacted it and the pair were planning more talks.